Frustrated

[katielam616]

Hello again,

I am new here as i am new to nursing. I just wanted to vent just a little. The last several weeks at work have been so nuts. I am becoming frustrated because the doctors are coming in to see the patients at 1:30 or 2:00 then discharging about 8 or 9 at a time. Some of them just to home most to NH or Rehab. Then since i work 3-11 since we have "so many empty beds" after we sent "all those people out" when we came on at 3pm. The discharge planner is always making the NH ambulance transfer to be 430 or so. This means the day shift nurses dont get most of the paperwork done (not their fault they did get the discharge late) but sometimes it still is a ton of running around with people going god knows where.

Then there is a new policy that the ER gets to send the pt up after 15 mins after sending the fax whether the nurse is ready or not. There are usually only 3 or 4 nurses so everyone gets 2. Sometimes i feel as if the supervisors forgot what working the floor was like! I am not trying to be difficult, no one is, but when you have 4-5-6 patients on top of your two admits it can be very overwhelming. As a new grad i feel discouraged today. I love my job I love my patients but some nights as a floor nurse i feel dumped on by everyone in the hospital. I understand the ER is busy. But they dont help us out much either. Today i had an admit for a patient who came in YESTERDAY!!!! morning and came to our floor at 2pm today and guess what, none of the orders were entered, no assessment was done. Sure the ER is busy, but your telling me in 24 hours not one person or several people couldve tried to at least start the paperwork? Asking for common courtesy and understanding in which i try to extend to them is not a lot to ask for.

Sigh. Feeling down today. Something has got to change. I feel the patients are unsafe because my mind is elsewhere. Everyone including people on my floor need a refresher course in "how to get along" this isnt about floor or shift wars. Were here to take care of people. Sorry this was so long. This has been 3 weeks boiling up and i could cry.

[Ivanna_Nurse, BSN, RN]

no good advice, just wanted to say I hope things get better. Ivanna

[NurseOnAMotorcycle, ASN, RN]

That's how my unit works too. Many times they never call or fax before bringing the patients up. They just "surprise" us with them. When I first started out, I went home exhausted every day. Now I'm tired but not as overwhelmed as I used to be.

:hug: Hang in there, it'll come.

(You said you felt like crying. I did too at times. Watching a horribly sad movie and crying your eyes dry is a big stress reliever..)